JetBlue defends ban of Internet celebrity

The customer isn’t always right, and there’s a limit to what staffers at airlines (and at other brands) can do to appease those throwing a fit.

In a rousing bout of “customer service meets social media,” JetBlue faced a firestorm on Twitter and YouTube after barring video blogger Matthew Lush from flying with them—ever—due to “threatening” tweets.

Lush called JetBlue’s customer service center on Nov. 25 to cancel a non-refundable flight after finding a cheaper fare. (He asserted he did not receive purchase confirmation for the flight.) A JetBlue supervisor offered to lower the $150 change fee to $100, but Lush wouldn’t have it. He then said he would tweet to his large group of followers about the call (now at more than 154,000 on Twitter and more than 580,000 on YouTube).

After the phone call, Lush tweeted a series of memes playing off the movie “Mean Girls,” which included the supervisor’s name, Regina, and employee number: